San Francisco Bay to Breakers 19 May 2002

The 91st running of the San Francisco Bay to Breakers foot race.

Over 50,000 people turned out for this year's 7.46 mile event (12 Kilometers).

The sky was overcast at the beginning of the race, and rain seemed likely. However, the local weather forecasters stated that the rain would probably start in the early evening. Ha! Wrong again.

The last time I did the Bay to Breakers was in 1983, 19 years ago. So, I thought that this year was an appropriate time to give the race another go. My finishing time in 1983 was about 58 minutes; this year I finished in 92 minutes. It was a good race; I would have taken more photographs, but the rain started to come down about 2 miles into the race, and my camera is not waterproof, so I ceased taking pics at the top of the Hayes Street hill, and concentrated on finishing the race. By the time I entered Golden Gate Park, the rain was pouring down. At the finish, on the Great Highway, I was cold and soaking wet. My original plan was to hang out at the finish; that idea was immediatly nixed. Instead, I walked about 8 blocks to catch a chartered MUNI bus for runners, that took us back to the start of the race. I made it back to the Embarcadero BART station, and took the train back to Berkeley.

All Images and Text Copyright © by Neil Mishalov

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BART train leaving Berkeley at 6:25 a.m.	7 a.m. Waiting for the 8 a.m. start of the race	Runners gathering at the start	7:10 a.m. The runners are restless

I just love your hair	Alex in wonderland	Sue and Cathy just got married.	Look closely and you can see flying tortilla's

The streets are filling up	Hair's looking at ya	Hair, there, everywhere	Getting ready to throw a tortilla

Two tortilla throwers caught in the act!	Two birthday cake girls	Spiderman	A cute couple

An angel	Yeow!	Aww, a putticat	Some wild and crazy guys

A group of college girls	Yes! Bay to Breaker babes	Like mother, like daughter	Wait, is that Jim and Tammy?

8 a.m. The race has started	Oh my! She asked my if it was ok to cover up. Foolishly, I said yes	Wild and crazy San Francisco	Moving up the street

The 2 mile mark. The rain has started	Turming off Polk Street	The begining of the Hayes Street hill climb	Climbing up Hayes Street

Up, up, up	This is a long climb	The residents of Hayes Street cheered us on. The rain continued to fall	Almost to the top of Hayes Street

	There's the top. The rain has picked up in intensity